An election with 17 candidates, after 31 aspirants expressed interest and campaigned, and a comparatively short three months of campaigning. Triggered by Tish James’s November election as New York State attorney general and resulting resignation as public advocate, the public advocate special election was, for New York, a unique electoral experience. Held with an unprecedented number of candidates and the absence of established party designations or nominations it was New York City’s first citywide special election. Candidate forums were the predominant public campaign activity, with several dozen held around the city by a wide range of civic and political groups. Our gallery has moments from the start to finish – take a look.

The first televised debate among public advocate candidates featured 10 contestants in an Errol Louis-moderated slugfest and a protest by one of the six candidates excluded from the debate. The debate was hosted and televised by NY1.

This brief clip features six of the contenders for city council speaker, just before a forum broadcast live on NY1. The six are seated onstage, in place just a few minutes before the broadcast is to begin. As last minute tech checks are completed and the clock ticks toward air time, the production team played a few songs, both in the hall and on the sound feed. (The sound was not edited or dubbed for this video.)

Update – Busting Out …:

The pre-forum fun also included a brief dance move by one of the speaker aspirants.

After a mayoral candidate forum on tolerance and cultural sensitivity, hosted by the New York Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we spoke with forum moderator Errol Louis about Crown Heights and the neighborhood perspective 22 years after racially driven rioting in the neighborhood. Our discussion with Louis, a longtime Crown Heights resident, also included Chanina Sperlin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council.

Bronx Community College hosted a mayoral candidate forum this evening. Moderated by Errol Louis, in his 11th mayoral forum of the year, the forum featured separate panels with the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Update #2: Weiner, The Audience & His Rivals

Anthony Weiner mostly succeeded with the audience, as shown in this report. His rivals mounted several attacks on him, without success.

Update: Weiner Media Availability

Here is Anthony Weiner’s full media availability following the forum, which runs about 4 minutes. He repeats his continuing responses: what I did was wrong, it’s all behind me now, I’m not going to answer in detail and I want to talk about issues and don’t care what my competitors say. (Note: The music you’ll hear was playing over the house sound system.)

Weiner Responds to Question of whether he uses “Facebook or Twitter”

The Democratic candidate segment featured a “Lightning Round” of yes/no and “pick A or B” questions intended to provide a peek into the candidates personalities. The final question was not what Anthony Weiner was hoping for.

Tonight the New York City Bar Association hosted a mayoral candidate forum. The forum, moderated by NY1’s Errol Louis*, featured separate panels of four Republican and Independence Party candidates and four Democratic Party candidates.

This excerpt has the “Lightning Rounds” in which Errol Louis posed a series of yes/no questions to each panel. He asked four questions of the Republican/Independence candidates and the same four, plus one additional question, to the Democratic candidates. (It’s possible that I’ve missed a fifth question due to a recording or editing glitch, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.) Among the notable answers, all eight candidates indicated that they are in favor of settling the Central Park Five case.

Update: In this excerpt George McDonald criticizes Anthony Weiner and Vito Lopez, and laments the lack of voter participation as enabling improper conduct by elected officials.

* This was the ninth mayoral forum of 2013 hosted by Errol Louis. Be sure to watch our interview with Errol Louis discussing the enormous number of candidate forums and whether they are a productive exercise.

At the conclusion of the forum, we spoke with Bill de Blasio about civil liberties and the NYPD. Watch it here.

Update: This excerpt covers a question concerning job training, with the complete candidate answers. (George McDonald arrived during this question/answer and was not invited to answer this question.)

For our initial report, here are the two “lightning rounds” conducted by moderator Errol Louis. In the first lightning round, held mid-forum, all seven candidates participated. The second lightning round was held at the end of the forum, with four candidates remaining. All of the questions cover substantive policy issues, and the last may be the most surprising.

Be sure to watch our post-forum conversation with Errol Louis, available here.

Last night Errol Louis moderated his 8th mayoral candidate forum of 2013. After the forum, hosted by Union Settlement Association and several other groups, we spoke with Errol concerning the many candidate forums and whether they are productive for candidates and for voters.

Be sure to watch our previous discussions on the multitude of forums, one with forum moderator and former mayoral candidate Tom Allon, Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu and candidate Sal Albanese, available here, and one with political journalist and triple forum moderator Brian Lehrer and candidate Joe Lhota, available here.